Do Pilots Still 'Fly' the Plane?

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True, these days pilots spend only a short amount of time with their hands on the control column or stick. But that does not mean we aren’t controlling the airplane throughout the entire flight. Our hands might not be steering the airplane directly, as would have been the case in decades past, but almost everything the airplane does is commanded, one way or the other, by the crew. The automation only does what we tell it to do. On the 767 that I fly, there are multiple ways to set up and command any routine climb, descent or change of course. Meanwhile, more than 99 percent of landings, and a full 100 percent of takeoffs, are performed manually.

Exactly what I'd tell you when you ask me, "Isn't it always on autopilot anyways?" Great Op-Ed by Patrick Smith.

More Sex, Better Sleep

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Is more sex before bed the answer to getting a good night's sleep? "Not only do I generally agree with that, but there is some good data to support it," says Nicole Prause, Ph.D., a top sex researcher at UCLA. "But, in all of the literature and research, we don’t know if it helps improve the quality of sleep. It's never been looked at. We just know that sex can get you to sleep and to get your brain off what it's ruminating about and that can lead to better sleep."

"There is one good study done in Germany that says when you have an orgasm, oxytocin and vasopressin both go high and they stay high for at least an hour. They did an experiment where they injected male rats with vasopressin and the rats immediately started yawning like crazy. It was actually really cute. This does show that orgasms—whether it's via sex with a partner or masturbation—can help you fall asleep faster."

Filing it under future reference. ^_^

What's Fernet?

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Fernet what?

The easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue. Its kind of like getting hit in the nose. Your brain hurts, your eyes sting and water, you cough a bit. Then, as soon as it begins a warm wave of relief washes over and you are left baptized in Italian herbals and golf ball eyed awake.

Of course, The Atlantic called it a few years ago as the Liquour you're still not drinking. I'll admit it's been a while but it's because I'm not searching. Have you tried it lately?

I wrote this article a few months ago after first trying it in no other city than San Francisco but The Bold Italic just released an awesome infographic so I thought I'd finally publish.

And always, don't forget my recent post on Esquire's drinking recommendation. ^_^

image.jpg

Internet Explorer for / on Mac: Test Bed Edition

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Sometimes you have companies that use and rely on dinosaur software archetypes. When you end up working for one, using a MacBook Air, iPhone or iPad just makes life that much more difficult. In this example, Microsoft's ASP and Sabre Corp's reliance on IE.

Good thing there's Google. Looking up testing platforms and easy to use one click solutions that enable you to run Internet Explorer resulted in OS X Daily's post. From the looks of it, it's been properly maintained a dis current. Along with the amazing people contributing on GitHub, we have the answer you've been waiting for.

I chose NOT to install every iteration of IE but instead went with IE 9. One of my classmates with a PC was still running into a compatibility problem with IE 11 but I guess that's not surprising. The over reliance on "Compatibility Mode" is out of proportion these days. What's the point? It just doesn't work.

If your interested in the full details, head over to OS X Daily or just follow these shortcut instructions.

  1. Download & Install VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
  2. Launch the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities/)

  3. Since I decided that IE 9 works well, copy and past this into the Terminal Window and the download will begin.:

    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xdissent/ievms/master/ievms.sh | IEVMS_VERSIONS="9" bash


  4. Launch VirtualBox and boot the Windows & Internet Explorer partition.

There are lot of little details that are left out e.g. Admin Password = "Password1" [without the quotes] and the fact that the installation takes 11GB for a single instance / version of Internet Explorer. Have fun but I guess I wouldn't associate this process with "fun."

I wanted to call this article "ASP is the new Flash", but being that ASP will continue to be used in the foreseeable future, we'll have to endure. 1

  • The use of ASP pages with Internet Information Services (IIS) is currently supported on all supported versions of IIS. The use of ASP pages will be supported on Windows 8 for a minimum of 10 years from the Windows 8 release date.↩

    • Love Instagram? Frame it with Layout

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    Finally a true app from Instagram themselves to out do any other grid / layout app on the iOS App Store. And don't worry Android, you'll get yours too sometime soon.

    When you open Layout, we automatically show you previews of custom layouts as you choose photos from your camera roll. To make it easier to find the photos you want, we’ve also added a Faces option that shows you all the photos in your camera roll that feature people.

    New grid / layout features.  Layout

    New grid / layout features.  Layout

    Personal Introductions: Not What They Do, but Who They Are

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    What if instead of introducing your friend as Jennifer the nurse, you started introducing her as Jennifer, one of most thoughtful people you know, or Jennifer the friend who helped you move in when you didn’t know a soul in this city.

    Introducing your friends for who they are rather than focusing on what they do will remind them they are loved before and beyond their titles. It’s an easy way to remind them that you see them for their hearts instead of their accomplishments.

    Great advice.

    A Perfect Drink

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    The thing about one drink — a glass of liquor we're talking about, hopefully a stiff pour — is that it doesn't involve enough alcohol to make anything stop working. Your eyesight, your natural grace, your moral compass — they're all left intact. Because one drink doesn't compromise anything. It enhances. You have one drink and your world becomes slightly better. The bar is a slightly better bar. Your dog is a slightly better dog. Your work is slightly more brilliant. And for that, you pay no price.

    I completely agree. Had one drink last week with a friend at her favorte burger joint Minetta Tavern and it was perfection. Company and food also were very much copmlimentary. ^_^

    I'll review the place later, but don't take my word for it. Check out their reviews on Yelp!. We split the Black Label Burger and Minetta Burger. Great choices all around. Maybe I'll do it up Bone Marrow style next time.

    photo by Lori L. via Yelp

    photo by Lori L. via Yelp

    Buy an MTA Card for $19.05 or $22.30 after March 22nd, Trust Me

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    Getting settled into the NYC life on reserve, you tend to have a lot of time to search and Google things. Toss in little bit of Yelp and various recommendations, it's easy to become inundated with awesomeness. But let's start off with a life little "hack." More specifically, don't give the MTA more money than you have to (leaving cash on a card) and load up a card with $19.05 or $22.30 after March 22, 2015.

    Three quick options. But wait a minute. One button leaves you with the same $9.45 card, and gives a remainder of $1.95 after just three uses. The next one is even more frustrating: you end up with a $19.95 card, leaving a remainder after 7 uses of $2.45! That's right, the nickel we were talking about earlier. The last option does not leave you much better off. You'll get a $40.95 card, which leads to $0.95 on your card after you use 16 rides. So all three buttons presented leave quite a bit of "insufficient fare" on the card.

    via I Quant NY

    Now I just have to calculate how much to load on my card to zero it out since I was ignorant to this awesome information.

    Lenting for You or Others?

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    The dominant theme for the past few years that I can remember is when the priest first started speaking about not just giving up something for Lent to better yourself but to better others as well. Reiterated by Pope Francis in this awesome Time article, I'll try my best to do the same.

    He often quotes the early Christian mystic John Chrysostom who said: “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”

    JetBlue Adds Apple Pay for InFlight Purchases

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    With many airlines accepting only credit cards these days, I'm glad to see jetBlue getting onboard with Apple Pay. Bravo! And in a few months, we'll be paying with our Apple Watches! ^_^

    Starting next week, passengers on select JetBlue Airways flights can use Apple Pay on their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets to buy food, drinks and certain onboard amenities when the plane reaches cruising altitude. You'll be able to upgrade to available premium seats, too.

    Update: Looks like a new app will go along the iPad minis too! Way to utilize tech jetBlue!

    Apple Pay in the air, JetBlue will deploy iPad minis and NFC-enabled cases to more than 3,500 inflight crewmembers. In addition to the cases with Apple Pay compatibility, each iPad mini will be loaded with a custom-designed iOS app — The Inflight Service Assistant — which will give inflight crewmembers access to customer manifest and flight data to provide the best experience possible to JetBlue customers.

    Sapporo Snow Festival Results in Amazing Star Wars Sculpture

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    This is just one of many reasons to add Sapporo to the bucket list. You can always check out the Japan Guide too for a more formal introduction.

    Geeks like to go all the way with their projects, and Japan is a country full of geeks. That‘s why they spent a month (and purportedly enlisted the help of the Army) building a giant Star Wars snow sculpture for the 66th Sapporo Snow Festival. And is truly enormous: 3,500 tons of snow went into making this 23 meter wide, 15 meter tall piece of geek art.The centerpiece of it all is a giant bust of Darth Vader, beckoning Luke to join the Dark Side. Vader is accompanied by three Stormtroopers and two TIE Fighters (one of them being his personal TIE Advanced).

    via Demilked